


in a crowd of thousands

by twohourstraffic



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Family, First Meetings, Kid Fic, M/M, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 08:25:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11551332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twohourstraffic/pseuds/twohourstraffic
Summary: the parade travelled on / with the sun in my eyes you were gone / but I knew even then / in a crowd of thousands / i’ll find you againSamwell was not the first time Jack and Eric's paths crossed.





	in a crowd of thousands

**Author's Note:**

> i've been listening to the anastasia soundtrack for six weeks. help me.

After a drink or three, the conversation has turned, as so many conversations do, to embarrassing childhood stories. Suzanne tops up her drink and turns back to the room.

“Now, Jack, did he ever tell you about the time that –”

“Mama, I swear, if you tell them  _one_  more story –”

But her son’s cheeks are happily flushed and Jack is pressed against his side and everyone knows that he doesn’t mean it, really, so Suzanne smiles sweetly and takes another sip of her spritzer.

“As I was saying, _sweetheart_ , one of my best friends from college moved up to Ann Arbor for work and then fell in love and stayed there, as so many people do. I went up the week before the wedding and took Dicky, but Richard couldn’t join us right away. Dicky must have only been three or four, I guess.”

Eric sits bolt upright, almost spilling his drink in the process. Alicia, on his other side, reaches out to grab it, but he doesn’t even notice. “Are you telling the parade story right now?”

Bob leans forward in his chair, clearly keen to get all the juicy details.

“Come on, Dicky, it’s sweet.” Suzanne turns to Alicia. “He was so obsessed with The Little Mermaid, you know. I must have seen that movie a hundred times, if not more. He would practice his bows so he could be just like the prince, dancing around the room, singing along … I think I could still quote it word-perfect if I tried.”

Eric’s head slumps backwards and he sighs. “I can’t even deny it.”

Jack pats him on the knee. “Suzanne, I’m sure you’re happy to know that he still knows all the words. I’ve seen him belt out _Part Of Your World_ more than once.”

“And you didn’t have any obsessions when you were a kid?” Eric asks accusingly.

“Babe, you know that’s not true.”

“Oliver and Company,” Bob mutters under his breath. Alicia snorts.

“The music is by Billy Joel!” Jack protests. “It’s timeless.”

“He’s been old since he was a toddler,” Alicia tells Suzanne with a laugh. “We couldn’t have changed it if we tried.”

“I’m not old,” Jack whines. “Just because I like old music –”

“– doesn’t mean you’re old,” Eric and Bob finish in unison. They grin at each other.

“I can’t believe you’re ganging up against me.”

“It’s better than ganging up against _me_ ,” Eric laughs, but his mom takes that as a cue to continue the story.

“So then Tom … Actually, I might still have the postcard from this day. Let me see if I can find it.” Suzanne jumps off the couch with the purpose that comes from having four drinks and goes over to the bookshelves, where an entire shelf is filled with albums and boxes. She pulls one out and starts flicking through it like a woman on a mission.

“My mom had recently been on a cruise,” Richard explains to Alicia and Bob, who are looking very confused by the transition, “so Eric had just discovered postcards. It got to the point that we bought him a packet of stamps and he took them everywhere with him. We’ve got postcards from the mall near his preschool, from the supermarket, from national parks. He’d dictate the message and we’d have to post it and everything. I guess there could be one from this day.”

“Of course there is,” Suzanne chastises. “Remember, Tom let him sign it and we could barely read the message?”

Richard suddenly grins. “Oh, this is  _that_ parade story?”

Eric’s eyes are barely visible through the slits of his fingers as he sinks lower into the couch, Jack’s arm around his shoulders. Bob looks over at them and grins.

“Don’t worry, Eric, it can’t be as bad as the time that Jack decided that –”

“Absolutely not,” Jack replies, quick as lightning. “You’ve already told the one about the clothes line, I think it’s time to hear the parade story.”

“OK. Fine,” Bitty huffs. “I went to a parade with Tom and sent y’all a postcard saying that I saw someone that looked like Eric from The Little Mermaid.”

“I think we all know that there’s more to it than that,” his father says with a grin.

“Cindy and I were getting facials,” Suzanne continues absent-mindedly, still flicking through the albums. “So we asked Tom to take Dicky for the day, and Tom asked if he could take him into Detroit, that there was some big party going on.”

“Wait, who is Tom?” Bob asks, following the story closely. He almost looks like he’s memorizing it for future blackmail.

“Tom is Cindy’s husband,” Richard volunteers. “Well, fiancé then, I guess. And we didn’t know this at the time but he worked for a company that supplied products to the stadiums in Detroit. And the Red Wings had just won the Cup, so for the parade they had an area sectioned off where people could stand at the front of the crowd.”

Eric suddenly emerges from his shame cocoon. “Wait, was it the  _Stanley Cup_  parade? Why didn’t I know that?”

Richard raises his eyebrows. “Because you were three? You wouldn’t have known if it was the President. I think he just told you it was a party. It didn’t matter to you, though, you just –”

“Here it is!” Suzanne suddenly exclaims. She pulls the postcard carefully out of the sleeve in the album and holds it up. It’s a classic design, WELCOME TO DETROIT emblazoned across a plain background. She pulls down her reading glasses from her head, then turns it over and reads it out with some difficulty.

>   _Dear Mommy and Daddy,_
> 
> _I saw a prince today, with dark hair and blue eyes just like Eric. He was riding in the parade. Tom picked me up and I bowed like you’re supposed to and he smiled at me. His mommy waved and I guess she was the queen. There were lots of people but I think he was nicest and one day we’re going to be best friends._
> 
> _Sincerely, Eric Richard Bittle_

“Oh my God, that’s too sweet,” Alicia says with a grin. She holds out her hand for the postcard and laughs out loud when she sees little Eric’s ‘signature’ scrawled across the message. “What year was this?”

Suzanne’s forehead wrinkles. “Cindy and Tom are coming up to their twentieth anniversary, so it must have been … 1998? That means Dicky was three, which sounds right. I think he knew the alphabet when he was four.”

“1998, Red Wings?” Bob looks like he’s thinking carefully for a second, then turns to Alicia and grins. “Oh my God, I remember this. When we rode with Steve, remember?”

“Wait, are you – Oh, Jesus, you’re right.” Alicia grins. “That’s _hilarious_. What a small world.”

Eric looks like he’s going to melt through the couch. “Are you serious? Is it ridiculous hockey legend that some blond kid was bowing at parade floats? Can I ever show my face at a team event again?”

“I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am …” Bob leans over to Jack. “Can I tell him?”

“Can you tell him what?”

“You know. About the parade.”

“Papa, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“He bowed, Jack.”

Jack suddenly goes white as a sheet. “Wait. Are you serious? There’s no way.”

“Will someone please tell me what I’ve done wrong before I have to change my name and go undercover?”

Bob raises an eyebrow at Alicia, who raises one back. “As I said, I could be wrong but … I think you bowed to Jack.”

Eric shrieks. Honest to God _shrieks_. “You’re joking.”

“I could be wrong,” Bob shrugs. “But we were visiting staying with the Yzermans during the playoffs and Steve invited us to ride with his family during the parade. I was going to say no, but Jack was so excited. And the officials probably should have said no, but they didn’t.”

Jack picks up the story. “So we’re in the back of the pick-up, riding down the streets of Detroit, and I was getting super overwhelmed. You know how it is – lots of noise, lots of people. I was kind of staring at my feet, wondering how long it was until we could go home, but then Mom –”

“I noticed this super precious kid,” Alicia says with a smile. “He was standing on the railings, being held by his waist, waving at everyone. He was probably three, he was so small. And so blond! I was trying to find ways to distract Jack, so I pointed him out.”

“So I span around in my seat to see this ‘super cute kid’ and then … he bowed to me? Which was so strange, but so … sweet? It was so silly that it made me laugh. Kind of rescued the day, I guess.”

“That is incredible,” Suzanne says with a grin. “What are the chances? Jack, you were all he could talk about for days. ‘Mommy, did you hear about the prince? I saw him with Tom and he smiled at me and he knows Ariel and Sebastian and we’re going to be best friends and he’ll show me his castle.’”

Eric shakes his head, dumbstruck. All he can manage to say is, “Why haven’t you ever introduced me to Ariel, Jack?”  

Jack barks a laugh. “I’m so sorry, love. I’m a terrible boyfriend.”

“You really are,” Eric says, but he links his hand with Jack’s and starts absent-mindedly rubbing his thumb over the back of Jack’s hand.

They sit like that until Bob notices, then proceeds to make fun of them until they pull apart, grinning, like school children that have been caught passing notes in class, smiling at each other when they think no-one is looking. 

* * *

A week later, Jack checks the mail to find a cheery postcard that he recognises from their local corner store.

> _Dear Jack,_
> 
> _I’m glad I met you, fifteen years ago. I think we were written in the stars. It may sound corny, but what fairy tale isn’t? Thank you for being my prince._
> 
> _All my love, ERB_


End file.
